Edwin was rationing Sebastian’s mana, fixing the nerve endings. That meant pain for the man he was treating, but he grinned and bore it well. The scars would remain. This place was not sterile enough for a skin transplant, and there weren’t any donors anywhere close.
The daughter was resting from her treatment, blinking back tears as she smiled brightly. She had not known she had cancer. These were simple traders who peddled their goods around the desert towns and oasis’s.
Her treatment had taken the better part of the night. Now, Edwin was running low on mana. Still, he needed to make sure the man he was working on got the feeling back in his arm tonight. That was their deal.
To the side stood an older woman, the mother of the girl and the wife of the man they were treating right now. She had fed Sebastian, but Edwin refused. Sebastian had taken quite a bit, and the woman could suffer complications if Edwin drank as well.
The last thing he wanted was to have to treat someone for blood loss. The rest of the traders looked with bated breath as Edwin weaved his hand around. In truth, his movements were much more complicated.
He was bolstering the natural healing properties of the body. Tricking it as if the man was still a fetus in the womb and needed new nerves made. The ones he could fix the endings of, he did. But the rest he killed off completely, hence the pain that the man was being put through, and replaced.
“Um, healer, can I ask you something?” Edwin’s concentration was broken by the question. He looked around and found the caravan leader standing with his hat respectively held in his hands.
“Go on,” Edwin stopped the treatment. If he was distracted, he might use his mana instead of Sebastian. While he had used his own with the girl, to kill the cancer cells in her skin and bones. And, wasn’t it a nightmare that the girl had both skin and bone cancer? He had used Sebastian’s mana to purify the girl’s body of the necromantic mana afterwards. They could both use a bit of a break.
“I was wondering, do you seek employment? We could use a healer on the road. And we don’t mind that you…killed your sire,” the man looked hesitant at the last part and Edwin understood. The caravan was going to have problems attracting vampire customers with Edwin and Sebastian tagging along.
“I am on my way to the Asylum of Blood. I will heal the sick among you for free,” Sebastian snorted at that, and Edwin glared at him to keep quiet. “But I will appreciate some blood donations and a guide to the dungeon.”
“Well, that is not for free, is it?” The caravan leader looked to be ashamed of his words after saying them. “I am sorry. I know you are in your right to ask for something in exchange. We couldn’t have been able to afford a treatment in a clinic for him, let alone for her.”
The caravan leader first pointed at their acid victim patient and then at the girl who used to have cancer. Edwin mentally added make healing accessible for everyone to his growing list of goals for the revolution.
“I understand that you just want to make sure your people are cared for,” Edwin then looked at the rest of the merchants that stood huddled by the water. They had formed a line. This was talked about and planned. “But, understand that my friend and I must go to that dungeon and destroy it.”
Sebastian looked at him like he had grown a second head at the friend part, his expression becoming unreadable moments later. Edwin ignored him. If they were not friends, then they were frenemies. Which was close enough.
“You want to destroy it? Why didn’t you say so? Every time we go pass it, we lose someone to the mobs. The blossoms there can walk, and they have these spores that spread through the entrance and suffocate the camels!”
Edwin had not known that anyone would risk passing by a dungeon. Unless they were an adventurer. And these people didn’t even have a guard with them. Which was something that could be fixed. If they were going to the dungeon and attempting to bypass it, then the only thing the two vampires needed to do was follow the caravan.
“So, you will help us?” Asked Edwin, not believing his luck. The merchant nodded and extended his hand.
“Callahan, and these are Utter and Ala. The woman your friend fed from is Gena. I’ll introduce you to the rest as you treat them,” offered Callahan. Then he placed his hat on his head and went back to the lined up merchants to tell them they were getting a checkup.
“You could have told them to spread the word that you are healing people free. Which, while noble, is a bad idea,” Edwin scoffed at Sebastian. Of course, the vampire will think it is a bad idea. He was an assassin. Not one to care about life in general.
“They will spread the tale anyway. And do you know, if people ask and then are told I didn’t set out to get them to tell it, they will be more convinced in the rightness of a healer providing treatment to the needy? Then a fellow healer might do the same. That is what I need. An avalanche of well-meaning healers to get the movement in motion.”
Sebastian shook his head.
“That is not how revolutions are done. You will need money and influential backers. One bird cannot be a harbinger of spring,” Edwin mulled over those words, then placed a hand over the man they were treating and waited for Sebastian to do the same.
“But birds migrate in flocks, Seb. If there is one bird, then there are many more flying over, ready to sing for a renewal. I require that more than I require a couple of corrupt politicians’ backing,” Edwin might be idealistic. He might not see the entire picture.
But he was certain that if the healers grew a consciousness, no one was going to be able to stop them. He would be the first bird to sing the coming of spring. He just hoped someone continued his song.
